That’s how Gov. Deval L. Patrick described state Secretary of Veterans’ Services Thomas G. Kelley last week – when he inexplicably asked for Kelley’s resignation.

The governor was right about at least one thing: Kelley is a true American hero.

The retired Navy captain and Holy Cross College grad wears a Medal of Honor on his chest and scars on his face that tell the story of an engagement on the Ong Muong Canal in South Vietnam in 1969 in which a grievously wounded Kelley defended his men and an Army troop carrier from a Viet Cong ambush.

You would think that one ambush was enough for a man of Kelley’s stature.

But last week, he was the victim of an apparent political ambush, and we think the governor owes the state’s veterans and citizens a complete explanation of why he was asked to resign.

We are prepared to give the governor the benefit of the doubt. He could have had a number of valid reasons for firing Kelley.

Was he incompetent? Was he not doing the job according to the governor’s will? Was he insubordinate? Or was he treating the post as a sinecure in the grand old Massachusetts style?

The governor is the state’s chief executive officer, and he has the right to a cabinet that carries out his policies.

But when he picks the holiday season to boot a popular official who has given years of service to his state and country, something doesn’t smell right.

Patrick’s silence is not helping matters. The public is only left with reports that the governor wanted to put a Democrat in the post, and Kelley is a holdover Republican appointee.

Kelley would only say that the administration wanted to move in a new direction, and “I’m not part of that new direction.”

Unless the governor is prepared to tell us why Kelley had to go, we can only conclude that it was politics. And if it was politics, then we can only say his ouster was a disgrace. It was certainly no way to treat “a true American hero.”

No, America knows how to honor its finest heroes. It’s called the Medal of Honor – not a pink slip the governor hands out when he thinks no one’s watching.